SHOWTIME DOCUMENTARY FILMS TO WORLD PREMIERE
ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS AND LOVE MEANS ZERO
AT 2017 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Eric Clapton. Photo: David Wedgbury.

NEW YORK – August 1, 2017 – SHOWTIME® continues to expand its powerful documentary portfolio with the world premiere of two riveting films at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS, directed by Oscar®-winner Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush, Driving Miss Daisy), is an unflinching and deeply personal journal into the life of legendary 18-time Grammy® winner Eric Clapton. Also debuting at TIFF is LOVE MEANS ZERO, the story of the celebrated yet controversial tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, directed and produced by Jason Kohn (Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)). Following their debuts at TIFF, both documentaries will premiere on SHOWTIME in 2018.

These two films join the esteemed Showtime Documentary Films portfolio that focuses on the lives and legacies of culture-defining and at times controversial figures, including WHITNEY. “CAN I BE ME”, THE PUTIN INTERVIEWS, BECOMING CARY GRANT, the Emmy®-nominated LISTEN TO ME MARLON, RISK, which takes viewers closer than they have ever been before to Julian Assange and tells the WikiLeaks story from the inside, and an upcoming documentary film on John Belushi’s life and career.

Told through his own words and songs, ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS is a moving and surprising film about one of the great artists of the modern era — a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and the only artist ever inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Spanning more than half a century of legendary popular musical innovation, the film contextualizes Eric Clapton’s role in contemporary music and cultural history. This rare and deeply intimate film reflects on Clapton’s traumatic childhood, his long and difficult struggle with drugs and alcohol and the tragic loss of his son and how he always found his inner strength and healing in music. The documentary features extensive interviews with Clapton himself, along with his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and heroes – including late music icons B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison. The film is directed by Oscar-winner Lili Fini Zanuck with Passion Pictures’ John Battsek (One Day In September, Searching for Sugar Man) amongst the producers. BAFTA winner Chris King (Amy, Senna) serves as editor.

LOVE MEANS ZERO presents an in-depth look at famed tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. At 85 years old, Bollettieri is a living legend. At his academy in Florida, he raised a generation of champions. Courier. Seles. Agassi. No other coach has matched his success, his dominance or his fame. His greatness, though, came at a terrible price. Broken marriages, financial ruin and perhaps most devastating, a fractured relationship with his surrogate son and most cherished student, Andre Agassi. When Agassi refused to participate in a documentary about his ex-coach, a simple biographical film turned into an investigation of a relationship lost. LOVE MEANS ZERO not only tells the story of this celebrated yet controversial coach, but also explores the cost of his all-consuming drive for greatness. The film is directed and produced by Jason Kohn. Amanda Branson Gill, Anne White, Jill Mazursky and David Styne also serve as producers.